‘Mad Max’ Returning With Not One, But Two Sequels

The success of Mad Max: Fury Road this past summer had most fans thinking there would most assuredly be a sequel. However, now the director of Mad Max: Fury Road, has gone on the record to state that he has not only one sequel to the post-apocalyptic film, but actually two.

George Miller, the director of Mad Max: Fury Road, recently gave an interview with Top Gear, in which he confirmed that the filming of the movie was so prolonged, that he ended up with many more ideas and material that is all primed for at least two more Mad Max films.

Miller talked in detail about the prolonged process of filming Mad Max: Fury Road.

“This film [Mad Max: Fury Road] was green lit three times and fell over three times over a decade. We went to shoot with Mel Gibson back in 2001, but then 9/11 happened, and the American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar close to 30 per cent, so we lost that amount of budget overnight.”

The Mad Max director then went on to talk about some horrendous conditions that the crew faced when they went back to Australia. Miller spoke about how it rained in the Australian desert for the first time in 15 years. They then transferred the production to Southwest Africa, to Namibia. However, in the meantime, Miller and the writers have been going back to the script, again and again, and taking a good hard look at not only the characters, but the physicality of the world that Mad Max lives in.

“…we had dug down deep into the backstory, not only of the characters, but of every vehicle. How the steering wheels became religious artifacts and things like that.”

Miller said that in the process, they came out of Southwest Africa with two additional Mad Max scripts. The Fury Road director said that Warner Bros. is currently in the process of reviewing both of them, and that he has no idea which one will be made first.

Whichever script they go with, Miller said that before he does the next one, he would like to do a smaller, less intense film with minimal special effects. Mad Max: Fury Road, took eight months to shoot, and Miller complained that eight months was too long of a time to be on set.

Mad Max: Fury Road was by no means the highest moneymaker of 2015 when all will be said in done. However, the continuation of the Mad Max saga did make almost $400 million worldwide, and that’s nothing to laugh at. What carries just as much, if perhaps not more weight, were the overwhelming positive reviews the film received not only from critics, but from fans alike. To top that off, the hyper-enthusiasm of the core Mad Max fans is practically contagious, and that’s something that Warner Bros. is likely to feed for as long as they can.

Where will the first sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road take those fans to? Right now, that is anyone’s guess, and that’s part of the thrill of seeing a Mad Max film. From all the talk George Miller made about delving the backstories of the film’s characters, it has to make one wonder if we possibly see a prequel in the works? However, the success of Charlize Theron’s character is Mad Max: Fury Road makes one believe that the next Mad Max film will be a continuation of the main characters from the last film.

At any rate, Miller’s insistence on making a smaller, quieter film before returning to the Mad Max saga probably means that we won’t be seeing another Mad Max film for at least a few years.

[Photos by Kevin Winter: Getty Images and Tuvideomexico]